Book excerpt: The author of the acclaimed Pliocene Quartet offers an in-depth guide to a saga that “has most closely matched J. R. R Tolkien's achievement” (San Francisco Chronicle). With its richly imagined universe and large cast of finely-drawn characters, Julian May’s Saga of Pliocene Exile has won devoted fans across the globe who find new layers, details, and ideas with each reading. In the words of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: “Julian May has made a new and fresh masterwork in the genre and has irrevocably placed herself among the great of fantasy and science fiction.” Covering all four novels—The Many-Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King, and The Adversary—this reading guideoffers a plot chronology, the author's original maps, a descriptive listing of all the characters, and three delightful interviews with May herself. Beyond that, it gives the reader a chance to explore further the surroundings of a world six million years in the past. The glossary gives information on metapsychology, on the futuristic science of the Galactic Milieu, and on the exotic world of the Tanu and Firvulag. In all, A Pliocene Companion is a must for followers of the Saga.